


The Shadow of Sina City

by Snk



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, F/M, Hero!Levi, M/M, Mentions of Suicide, Minor Character Death, Superheroes, Superpowers, Torture, detective!erwin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-21 06:52:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9536744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snk/pseuds/Snk
Summary: All men can feel fear given the right situation.Another thing he isn’t expecting is the deep masculine voice that resonates from the small hooded figure “I thought people like you weren’t meant to be so fucking stupid. Would have been a shame if they splattered your stupid brain all over this shitty alley”





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I am back and in a much better place than I was when I was last on here. Last time I was here I was writing due to my anxieties, but now I am just writing because I enjoy it.  
> If you recognize this title or story, that is probably because I am reworking an old fic of mine that I really liked the premise of but thought my execution was atrocious. So I've majorly changed it up and I hope you like it ^.^

The familiar metallic smell of iron permeates his nostrils, beckoning him like an old friend. These things no longer haunt him like they used to, or like they probably should. The nature of his work doesn’t allow room for emotion; emotion is a hindrance to logic, he always thought.

He knew this girl, he has seen her before at the precinct but he never had to directly cross paths with her. The inspector told him that she was in witness protection after escaping the auction block of the underground sex trade. What is yet to make sense to him is why she would be murdered in such cold blood when the information that she had fed the detective that was interviewing her was quite menial and didn’t help the precinct move forward on the trade any faster than it already was.

“Inspector” he acknowledged as the inspector made his way toward him.

“Chief” he’s standing mere feet away, thoughtfully scratching his beard “going to let me in on what you’re thinking in that big brilliant brain of yours yet?” The sentence so deadpan that he would crack a smirk under normal circumstances.

“I need some time to look over a few things that aren’t making sense right now, I’m heading back to the office and try to gather some more information” he takes one last look at the mangled corpse as he steps outside into the fresh winter air.

“Wait, Erwin” he hears from behind.

“Chief” Erwin admonishes as he turns around to face his all-too-friendly inspector.

The inspector grins widely “Don’t give me that crap, there’s no one in earshot… _Chief.”_ He ends sarcastically and Erwin tsks. “Just make sure you go home and get some rest at some point, ok?” He shrugs as Erwin raises a curious brow at him “Marie will kick my ass if I at least don’t suggest it to you… and it’s almost 1am” he explains while pointing at his wrist that is clearly void of any watch.

Erwin allows himself a slight grin at that, he knows that Marie wasn’t the only underlying reason why he was saying this. “Thanks Mike, but I’m sure that I will hear enough about it from her anyway” Erwin gives a self-deprecating smile. “Let me know as soon as the lab has all the samples, and give me a call if anything happens or you get anymore information”

As soon as he is enveloped in the warmth of the cars heater he allows his professional mask to drop as he pulls out his phone and powers it back up, allowing him brief respite before heading back to the precinct. The shrill ringtone buzzes constantly in his hand as he is bombarded by a slew of texts and voicemails. After almost 10 years he thought she would be used to his late nights by now, but he can’t really blame her for worrying about him and his ridiculous work habits, at least one of them has to.

_When will you be home?_

_I’m thinking I’ll do lasagne tonight_

_Helllllloooooooooo, stop working you asshole_

He huffs a short laugh at that one.

_I just saw the news, hope you’re ok_

He notices that was the last notification at 10pm, she must have accepted her fate by then. He doesn’t expect her to pick up as he dials her number over the Bluetooth speaker and puts the car into gear. He hopes that she is in bed sleeping soundly with her phone on vibrate, but the phone picks up and he hears the muffled ruffling of sheets coming through the line. At least one hope was right.

“Hello gorgeous” He hears a short huff from the other end of the line.

“Oh thank god, I heard what happened on the news. You ok?”

“Yeah, I am fine. How much did you hear?”

“That it was… gruesome,” she says it gently like she thinks Erwin might wince upon recollection if she bluntly stated any details.

Erwin wasn’t surprised that she had already heard about the crime, news like this tended to travel quickly; gutted and dismembered bodies weren’t exactly commonplace and tended to garner more attention in the media. The meticulously gruesome crime even had some generally calm officers feeling squeamish. But Erwin was calm, he always is. He needs to be.

He knows it is wrong, but he always fakes emotion with Marie over the fucked up things that his job exposes him to. He knows she worries more when he doesn’t, so he indulges her and hides the less favourable workings of his psyche from her.

“Well don’t worry sweetheart, I will be home by the time you wake, so don’t wait up for me”

“Hah, I already gave up on waiting” she snapped with no real bite.

Erwin inwardly winced “I’m sorry, I’ll see you in the morning. I love you, sleep well”

“Love you too, you big work obsessed lug” he chuckles as he ends the call.

_

Erwin has been shifting through hours of paperwork. Reports and results engrossing him for hours on end while he constantly sips on triple shot lattes courtesy of the precinct coffee machine, allowing his workaholic tendencies to flourish as he only left his desk for more caffeine or when his bladder couldn’t possibly withhold any more caffeine.

He feels the beginning of a pounding headache coming on as he reluctantly peels himself from the rigidity of his worn-out office chair, feeling multiple bones popping back into place as he straightens his spine with a grimace and absently makes his way to the officer parking lot, squinting as the first rays of morning sunlight gently beam over the horizon.

On his way home he pulls into a gas station to fill up his tank, said gas station also happens to sell hot coffee and questionable baked goods. He feels only slight hesitation upon first glance at the grotesque state of the coffee machine, but he is a man fueled by caffeine and bagels after all.

He tugs his gloves on as he steps back out of the gas station and into the winter frost. He watches his breath float away in cloudy puffs while he strolls over to his car. He started to thoroughly regret his earlier decision not to grab the gaudy woolen scarf that Marie had knit for him as the cold air burned deep within his lungs.

He is about to open the car door when he hears yelling and screaming coming from an alley across the street. He quickly crosses the road and hunches over as he enters the dark alleyway, the voices get louder as he quickly paces down to the end and takes a careful glimpse around the corner of the brick wall. There are 3 men crowded around and yelling at a screaming woman.

“Shut the stupid bitch up!” one of the male voices says.

“Fuck! I’m trying- shit!” he hears a load smack and the screaming stops.

Erwin’s pulse starts to race, he needs to help her.

“Don’t hit her that fucking hard you fucking idiot!”

Erwin grabs his phone and quickly texts for backup, not willing to make any noise to disrupt his element of surprise.

“Just grab her and let’s get the fuck out of here!“

He hears some more scuffling as he steels himself to make an intervention. He palms the handle of the small handgun that is tucked beneath his suit jacket; an officer is never really off duty after all.

He confidently walks around the corner pointing the gun at one of the assailants and holding his badge in the other “Police! Don’t Move! What is going on here?” he says in a formidable tone. As soon as he had spoken there was a gun pointed to the back of his head, he internally cursed for not seeing the fourth assailant hanging back in the shadows.

“What is your fucking name?” Snarls the gunman. Erwin stands there in silence, refusing to say a word or let his calm façade falter. The hooded assailant cocks the gun “Oi! Fuckwit! Put the fucking gun down, show me your hands and fucking answer me before I shoot you in the back of the fucking head!“

Erwin is about to drop his gun when he hears a sudden loud clap and a black blur passes above their heads. Without warning the gunman collapses into a boneless heap on the ground.

The other three assailants lock eyes with Erwin when they hear the gunman’s weapon hit the pavement in a loud clutter “Hey what the fuck-“

There was the sound of metal hitting brick and all of a sudden the black blur flashes over the three assailants heads as they also drop to the ground.

Erwin finally loses his composure as he stands there with eyes wide as saucers trying to comprehend what it was that he just witnessed when suddenly a small person drops from the sky, landing in front of him with all the finesse of a feline.

“Shit!-“ Erwin stumbles backwards and almost trips over in his shock. All he can see is a pair of lips beneath a large black hooded cloak shooting him a subtle smirk; the offender was obviously smug about catching him off-guard.

Another thing he isn’t expecting is the deep masculine voice that resonates from the small hooded figure “I thought people like you weren’t meant to be so fucking stupid. Would have been a shame if they splattered your stupid brain all over this shitty alley” the small figure sneers at him.

Erwin gapes at the figure for a moment before he gains the composure to talk again “Who are you?”

“Who I am is none of your fucking business,” he snaps as he casually strides over to the female who is lying still on the ground. He reaches down to feel her pulse.

“Well, I would like to know the name of the person who just saved the lives of two strangers, one of those strangers being a chief detective” Erwin says as he watches the small man hoist the limp girl over his shoulder with far too much ease for his apparent stature.

“Tch, your other little piggies better get here soon, they will only be out for another 30 minutes… tops” he was gesturing toward all the knocked-out assailants on the ground. A second later and he shot out some sort of grapple from his wrist and he was gone.

Erwin stands there gaping in disbelief for mere moments before he hears the sounds of sirens blaring in the distance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you think this is any good at all, I really can't tell anymore! Haha!  
> Comments and kudos are mucho appreciated! ;P


	2. The Shadow Emerges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It has to break before it can be rebuilt.

“Big bro! Look what I found!” The bouncy redhead pushes a large duffel bag to his chest.

Levi opens it and his eyes widen immediately and he drops the duffel to the floor, “Izzy, how the _hell_ did you get this?” there must be at least fifty grand stuffed in there upon first glance.

“Uh… I found it!” she is horrible at stalling.

“But _where_?” Levi practically spits the question at her.

Her eyes dart everywhere but at Levi, “Ok, if I tell you, you promise you won’t get mad?” her smile is bordering pleading.

“ _No,_ ” his eyes darken as he feels his stomach start to sink.

“Fine… I found it out the back of Reiner’s place,” she says sheepishly, “but it will help pay off all our debt, right? And maybe even a car! Furlan will be happy!” she bounces up and down in excitement.

“Out the back? Of _Reiner’s_?” he quizzes.

“It was stuffed behind a dumpster, I’m sure he won’t miss it,” her nervous tone betrays her words.

“Fuck… _Fuck_! Of fucking course he will goddamn miss it!” Levi feels his heart rate start to skyrocket. “I have to take it back, _now_!” he grabs a black garbage bag from the pantry and stuffs the duffel inside - he isn’t an idiot, he knows can’t be seen walking around the streets with the duffel in plain view.

Reiner is a notorious meth dealer and gang affiliate in Sina city, he has a lot of connections, and by the look of it, Izzy likely just stole a drop-off from him. He didn’t even want to think about why she would be hanging out in such a place to begin with, but he has no time to dwell on that fact just yet. He is starting to feel sick.

“C’mon, just think about this for a minute!” she pleads him.

“NO!” he can’t seem to contain the roar and vitriol that picks up in his voice, “ I can’t believe you could be so fucking stupid!” he knows he is being harsh, but he needs to drill it in to her so that it doesn’t ever happen again, “this isn’t like you!”

He can see her eyes starting to well up and glisten, he knows that his scolding affects her the most out of anyone, “I’m sorry! It all happened so fast. I didn’t have time to think… I just want us to be happy, and I thought this money could make us happy…. But I see that I was stupid now. I’m so _sososo_ sorry!” she starts to sob.

“Tch, I’m going to get Furlan and we are going to fix this,” He grabs his black woolen jumper from the rack, “did anyone see you there?”

“I-I don’t think so? Let me come too! _Please_! It’s all my f-fault anyway!” she manages between sobs.

“Tch, you are not leaving this house until I’ve given the money back and I know you’re safe. Now just stay here and shut up.” He grabs the bag and curls a black scarf around his neck, “If you so much as even look outside a window while I’m gone then all you’re getting is sandpaper the next time you take a shit!” he warns as he makes is way out the front door.

“I’m sorry big bro,” he hears Izzy say as he closes the door and makes his way over to the bar that Furlan was currently working at.

-

“What are you doing here? I’m not due to get off for another 3 hours,” Furlan winks at him as he wipes up all the spilt liquor from the bar top.

All the drunken patrons and shitty music make Levi feel even more nauseous than he already was “We have to go _now_. Izzy did something stupid,” Levi keeps his voice low so any surrounding patrons don’t hear.

Furlan narrows his eyes when he sees the urgent expression on Levi’s face “Ok, just give me a minute.”

“ _Hurry._ ”

-

It was suspiciously quiet at Reiner’s house, Levi and Furlan managed to sneak their way into the back yard without getting detected.

“Hurry up, let’s get out of here,” Furlan says from his vantage point at the corner of the house.

Levi stuffs the duffel behind the dumpster and quickly makes his way over to Furlan “I don’t think anyone is here,” Furlan observes in a hushed tone, “isn’t that weird?”

“Yeah, it is.” Levi tries not to think about the sinking feeling he gets in his stomach as Furlan voices the oddly unsettling observation.

They make their way back out onto the street and stick to the shadows until they are a few blocks away and Levi pulls his scarf down from covering his mouth and the winter air immediately starts to chap his lips.

“That was easy,” optimistic as always, “you didn’t even need me!” he grins at Levi.

As they pass the bar on their way home they can hear sirens sounding in the distance, moving closer. Levi starts to shiver, but not from the cold. He starts to walk faster; Furlan senses Levi’s sudden urgency and jogs to catch up to his brisk walking pace. As they pass the last few blocks the sirens get louder until he turns the last corner and his blood turns to ice as thunderous chills wrack his body in time with his heartbeat, he suddenly feels like he is about to vomit his heart out of his chest.

There are three police vehicles, two white unmarked vans and an ambulance parked outside their house. That sight alone forces his whole body violently tense as his vision becomes blurry. He runs as fast as his wobbly legs will allow him to, he can hear Furlan calling his name but he barely registers it over the sound of icy blood pumping through his head, blocking out everything but the incessant flood of horrible possibilities running through his mind and turning it numb.

“Sir! Excuse me, Sir!” he distantly hears a voice yelling at him through the fog in his mind and heavy pressure on his bicep as someone grabs his arm, “You can’t go in there! This is a crime scene!”

He yanks his arm free and runs toward the house, he can still hear muffled yelling from behind him as he reaches the door. He vaguely registers the broken lock before his nose is assaulted with the heavy scent of iron.

The TV is face down on the floor next to a pile of scattered papers; the coffee table is lying skewed on its side with broken glass and ceramic surrounding it. There is blood and gore splattered across the wall behind the couch, and heavy pool of blood soaks into the couch cushions just below. That is when he sees her.

Lying on a stretcher. He catches a glimpse of for mutilated face, only one lifeless eye stares back at him before it is covered beneath a closing body bag - and that is when the numbness begins to subside.

He can’t tell, but he thinks he can feel somebody grabbing him and pulling him away, all he can really focus on is the way he feels his entire world is shifting beneath him as the gravity of this situation violently ebbs through the fog in his mind. The desperate feelings of fight or flight snap something within him.

He feels like he is standing a few feet away from his body, watching himself react without any control. He can distantly feel his limbs flailing and his fists and elbows landing blows on the flesh that is trying to hold him back. He swings his head back as hard as he can and hears a sickening crack as stars burst across his vision and he is dropped face first to the ground. The weight of all those eyes staring at him is enough to keep him down - green, brown… _blue_. He can hear muffled yelling, a voice that sounds like Furlan’s and maybe a few others, the yelling is mixed with inhuman growls, which he doesn’t even realize are coming from him.

He can feel the weight of someone on his back, yanking his arms behind him before he feels cold steel locking them into place. His rage begins to fade and he starts to hear coherent words.

“You have the right to-“

“He broke my nose – Fuck!” an officer yells.

“-Remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney.”

He still can’t absorb all of what is being said, but he realizes that is he is being arrested. He can’t really bring himself to care though, not when he feels something akin to desperation and horror bubbling its way to the surface.

Being hauled into the backseat of the police car is a blur, but when he sees the expression on Furlan’s face just outside the car window, it is clear as day. The blatant look of utter devastation shatters Levi’s heart.

“NO! _Please_! Don’t do this! He isn’t in his right mind! _Please_! We-I _need_ him!” he can hear Furlan desperately shouting through hics and sobs as the car shifts into gear and starts to drive away. He sees Furlan drop to his knees as the car turns a corner and disappears from his view.

Levi starts to gain awareness of his body and notices that he is still shuddering violently as he feels tremors shooting up his spine. His face is damp from an ongoing rush of silent tears.

He glances toward the rear-view mirror and sees the concerned eyes of an officer staring back at him. “I’m sorry… But you assaulted an officer. We had to…”

He can’t hear them say anything else as his heartbeat floods his ears and the world turns black, his body crumbles under the pace and loops of the jarring roller coaster inside Levi’s head.

-

He felt drained. So very drained. The last twelve hours have been the worst in his entire life. He didn’t feel like he could possibly cry anymore, or _feel_ anymore. His jaw ached, his nose was red and blocked, his throat felt like sandpaper and his eyes were almost swollen shut as he kept crying while curled up on the hospital bed with officers guarding the door, unable to see Furlan. In the morning, when he finally calmed down enough to warrant a discharge, he was taken to the Sina City Police Department and found himself inside an interrogation room.

Despite the name of the room, he barely felt like he was being interrogated, the officers were quite understanding of his behavior and only reprimanded him due to formalities. They also asked him some questions about the events that led up to what happened last night. However, there was still one matter that hadn’t been addressed, filling Levi with anxious tension as the seconds ticked by.

“What…” he clears his throat and drops his stare to the cold steel table before him, “what exactly happened… to her?”

The officer gives him a pitying look as they fidget with the pen in their hand. “There seemed to have been a struggle… Then she was shot.”

“In the head.”

“…Yes. I’m sorry.”

He inhaled and continued, “A struggle?”

“Well as you said, they must have come looking for the money. We don’t know for sure, but by gathering the information from you and the evidence at the crime scene, I assume she must have told them that she didn’t have the money anymore or maybe even that she was returning it. Maybe they didn’t believe her and thought that she wasn’t going to give the money back… And it must have taken a turn which ended up in her getting shot.”

He couldn’t help but to think _what if I had let her come with me? What if I had just waited a day? I could have been there! I could have diffused the situation by just handing them the money! I could have told her to go wait at the pub! I could have-_

“-kerman? Mr. Ackerman?” Levi snaps out of his reverie and lifts his eyes back to the officer.

“Can I go now?” his tone so cold that it is barely even a question, more of an insistence.

“Yes, I have all the statements we need for now. Can I recommend you to see a councillor? You have been through a lot in the pas-“

“No.” he cuts them off “I’ll be fine” his tone almost betrays him.

“Are you sure? Mr. Ackerman, there is nothing wrong with-“

“I said I am fine,” he snaps.

“Ok. Well, your friend has been in the waiting room since you got here, he said he could take you home. Now if you’ll follow me I’ll sign you out.”

They exit the interrogation room and make their way down the hall and through some security doors near the front desk. While he is standing there waiting for the paperwork to finalize, he can feel the weight of eyes on him. He looks up and notices a pair of intense blue eyes focused on him that instantly shift away when spotted, Levi raises a brow, he must look worse than he thought. Though anyone would look horrible compared to the appearance of that well-suited man.

Levi’s name is called and he is handed his belongings before existing the last security door next to the front desk. He doesn’t even spot Furlan before he is engulfed in the biggest bear hug that he has ever received “Levi!” Furlan nuzzles his nose into the crook of Levi’s neck “Are you ok? Did they hurt you?”

He lightly wraps his arms around Furlan’s waist “I’m… I’m ok,” He hesitates; voice is muffled by Furlan’s shoulder.

“I-I was so scared,” his voice is shaking, “I still am, sh-she is gone! Levi, Izzy is gone!” he lets out a sob and Levi can feel the collar of his shirt dampening. “And you weren’t here! I was alone!” he almost whines. Levi didn’t think that his heart could break any further.

His vision starts to flood with images of a lifeless eye, blood and gore. “Let’s go. I need to leave.” He doesn’t mean to be so terse, but he feels like his voice will betray him if he opts for anything else. Furlan removes his face from the juncture and gives an apathetic nod.

As they walk out he can feel the weight of that stare again, and as he walks through the doors he takes a quick glance back to see the blue-eyed blonde man is now watching him from behind the front desk. He swears he can see those blue eyes shine before the tinted automatic doors block them.

-

“Revenge is what you want, right? I have the power to give that to you, I just need you to do what I say,” the man with the scruffy beard kicked back in the armchair lighting a cigar.

“This sounds ridiculous. How could you even make me stronger? You do voodoo or some shit?” Levi was just humoring the man now.

“Medical science has come a long way out of the viewing eye of the public. We can make you strong, stronger than you ever thought possible. And you will be so fast that no one will catch you,” resting his cigar in an ashtray, he takes a long swing of amber fluid from a highball glass. “All of your natural abilities will be enhanced. You will even be able to sense fear.” the man eyes him over the glass raised to his lips, “You feel guilty, right? So why don’t we fix that?”

Levi slaps the glass out of the man’s hand and sends it smashing into the wall next to them “ _Fuck you,_ ” he spits with venom.

“Now, now, Levi. It’s been almost a year since she died, no need for such aggression,” he has the audacity to smirk.

Levi stands up and delivers the hardest punch that he can muster straight to the man’s jaw. There is a loud crunch as the man’s teeth grind together and his jaw briefly pops out of place. Levi spins on his heel to exit the venue when he hears pained laughter, “Nice arm, but I can make it so that every single punch you land could kill a man.” Levi ignores his bullshit and continues to walk toward the door without looking back when he spots Furlan giving him an alarmed look from behind the bar.

“What happened? Where are you going?” Furlan urges as he watches Levi continue to make his way to the exit.

“Home. Gotta get ready for work. I’ll see you later.” unable to mask the frustration and shortness of his tone before pushing his way out into the brisk winter air.

Their ‘home’ is now an apartment building about a 15-minute drive from the pub that Furlan works at, a bit too far to walk on foot, so they have taken to public transport. He couldn’t stomach returning to the house that they shared with Izzy, instead opting to stay at a shitty motel for over a month before they found a new place to move into that they could afford on a bartender and martial arts instructor combined salary. They didn’t take anything from their old house, they hadn’t even stepped foot in it since _that_ night.

Insomnia has now become a part of his life. Whenever sleep eventually finds him, so do the nightmares. He has woken Furlan more times than he can remember with his shivering screams and clawing fingers, drenching the pillows in sweat and tears. Furlan always holds him, tells him that they are going to get through this together, that they will make Izzy proud. When Furlan kisses his swollen eyes he can almost believe him. Levi is just glad that Furlan never walked into the house that night, that he doesn’t have the images burnt into his memory that resurface at the worst times, that he got to preserve his memory of her as a whole person, not the mutilated mess that she was turned into. And his last words weren’t spat at her with vitriol, every time he thinks about that memory the guilt runs so hot through his nerves that he can feel his throat filling with bile as he desperately tries to swallow back his shame.

Levi might not have much left, but at least he still has someone who loves him and that is enough to sustain him.

 

He opens the door to the apartment and steps inside when he hears paper crunching under his shoes. A white envelope had been slipped under the door, his name is written on the front in cursive. He minutely arches a brow as he bends to pick it up, curiously eyeing it and turning it over in his hands as he chucks his keys in a bowl next to the door. He tears the envelope open and pulls out a business card; he runs his thumb over the embossed letters “Kenny Ackerman”. Levi pauses at that; Ackerman isn’t a very common last name. He turns the card over and sees handwriting scrawled on the back.

“When you eventually change your mind, give me a call.”

Levi scoffs _. That bastard is fucking persistent_. Despite his surface feelings of disgust, something inside him forces him to slip the card in his wallet’s hidden pocket with a grimace. He tries not to think about how conflicted he feels about almost every aspect of his life lately.

He has noticed this man sitting in the bar Furlan works at, alone, for the past 3 months. All he would do is occasionally glance at Levi whenever he decided to stop by before or after work, but today was different. He approached Levi with promises of ridiculous proportions, offering a way for revenge. Like he _knew_ Levi. Levi wants to punch himself in the face for the tiny bit of hope that had surfaced when the man told him that he could get his revenge, he knows full well that there is no way any of the crap that guy had said could actually happen.

He goes through the motions to get ready for work, mindlessly drifting trough his tasks until he finds himself standing out the front of the gym 10 minutes late for his session. He curses the incompetence of public transport as he apologizes to his students. By the time he has finished all of his sessions, it’s 8pm and the chill in the air has deepened considerably, the heaters on the bus he takes home aren’t working and he ends up shivering the whole way, yet again cursing the terrible public transport in this city. In a months time he and Furlan will have saved up enough to get a decent car, though nights like this wane his patience greatly.

 

He climbs the stairs to the apartment; he knows that Furlan will be home by now, his shift at the bar finished about 3 hours ago. As he enters the door to the apartment he notices the kitchen lights are on, he kicks his shoes off and leaves them on the rack next to the door.

“Hey, I’m home,” he calls, but doesn’t hear an answer; he assumes Furlan must have gone to bed already. He wanders into the kitchen and grabs an apple, biting into it while mindlessly scrolling through his news app in an attempt to wind-down for the day. After one particularly violent yawn he makes his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He feels disgusted by his appearance when he looks in the mirror, the bags under his eyes are a prominent mottled purple from consistent lack of sleep and his hair is thinning from all the stress. He sighs and proceeds to turn off the lights in the apartment and makes his way over to the bedroom.

As soon as he opens the door he can feel the air shift, the bitter tang of iron stings his nostrils in the most unpleasant form of déjà vu that he has ever felt. The darkness of the room is disorienting, “Furlan?” no response, “Furlan?” his heartbeat starts to pick up as he raises a shaky hand to the light switch and flips it on.

The blood is the first thing that he sees; there is a pool of it running across the floor from behind the bed. “Furlan!” he urges desperately as he rounds the bed and his eyes trail the pool of blood until the source comes into view.

“Fuck! _Fuck_! FUCK!” His voice comes out so distressed and broken that he could be convinced that it was somebody else yelling. He drops to his knees and crawls through the pool of blood over to Furlan who is currently face down, he grabs his shoulder and gently shakes it “Hey! Get up!” he steels himself with a deep inhale before he rolls Furlan over. Furlan’s head lolls unnaturally as he is laid on his back and his deeply slashed neck comes into Levi’s view. Levi whips his hand back from his shoulder like he had been burnt and slaps it over his mouth in an attempt to muffle the pained screams involuntarily making their way through his throat. He scoots back so quickly and violently that he almost breaks the wall when his back comes into contact with it. He feels like he can barely breathe as his body battles between crying and screaming, his eyes so large that he feels like they could burst out of his skull.

 _Nonononononono. Not again. I can’t do this again. I can’t. This isn’t real. It’s just another nightmare. I’ll wake up soon. It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream._ This becomes a mantra in his head.

His subconscious forces his shaking hand to reach into his pocket and pull out his phone, he dials emergency services and prays that he can steady his voice enough to tell them the address. He manages to get out all the information needed before throwing his phone at the wall as hard as he can, shattering it on impact.

He slowly crawls back over Furlan’s body. He weakly pulls the sheet off the bed and covers Furlan’s body up to his chin so that the gaping wound in his neck is hidden from view. He looks into the lifeless eyes of his lover and begins to sob as he cups his face and gently closes his eyes with his thumbs, lightly kissing each eyelid between painful sobs. Now he could almost convince himself that he was just sleeping.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” he isn’t sure what he is apologizing for, he just keeps repeating it until all it sounds like is a bunch of broken syllables and silent screams. He keeps mindlessly mumbling as he presses his face into Furlan’s hair and lets out painful guttural sobs that suck the air from his lungs like a vacuum.

He distantly hears loud pounding at the front door through the fog in his mind. The police. He doesn’t answer, he can’t. He knows they will come in anyway. He starts to hyperventilate between sobs. _They are going to take him away- I’m going to be alone. Truly alone. I have nothing left. Nothing- Nobody._ As soon as he sees an officer enter the bedroom his vision starts to fade to black, he takes one last look at Furlan’s face before his body succumbs to shock.

-

He can see the flashing of headlights passing by behind his eyelids. He lies curled up on a bus bench, using his bag as a lumpy makeshift pillow. He cracks open an eye and tries to focus on how the headlights burst into tiny rays as they filter through the fog. It’s been ten days since Furlan was murdered and Levi has not returned home since, reminiscent of Izzy, but this time he is completely alone. Opting to wash in gas station bathrooms, charging his phone at the library and sleeping on any sheltered bench that he can find. He doesn’t even care what happens to him anymore, he almost envies the peace of eternal rest.

He suddenly feels vibrations beneath his head and rummages around his bag to locate his phone. He doesn’t recognize the caller ID, but he answers anyway.

“What.” he has no patience left for pleasantries and social standards anymore.

“Uh… Hello, Mr. Ackerman?” he recognizes the voice; it was one of the officers investigating Furlan’s murder.

“M hm,” He grunts.

“It’s Deputy Jameson, I’m just calling to update you on our investigation. We have arrested and detained three confirmed assailants, the crime seems to have been gang related.”

Levi is suddenly confused, “Gang related? But nothing has happened since last year.”

“They say that Mr. Church stole two hundred thousand dollars from them, and apparently when they went to ‘retrieve’ it from Mr. Church he didn’t have it-“

“Well no shit!”

“-They claimed that he tried to attack them, and that is when they murdered him.”

“But he never stole it, I would know! They are fucking liars!” Levi feels white-hot anger pulsing through his veins.

“We are still investigating the situation Sir, I will be back in contact when we have anymore updates. Have a good night.” They hang up before he can get another word in. He squeezes his phone so hard that it could break before shoving it in the pocket of his jacket. He ends up punching a hole through the bus shelter’s flimsy advertisement board before he forcefully swings his bag over his back and starts to run. He doesn’t even know where he is running to, he just feels an innate need to run as far as his feet will take him.

When his lungs feel like they are about to catch fire he finds himself at the entrance of a tall apartment building. He waits for someone to buzz the door open before he quickly slinks in behind them unnoticed. He climbs his was up the stairs until he reaches the roof entry. He can feel the wind whipping his jacket around as gusts sweep through the tops of the buildings, almost smacking him in the face. He slowly makes his was over to the edge of the building and climbs to ledge guard until his toes are hanging over the bricks, making it harder to balance when mixed with the feelings of mild vertigo as he looks down. He closes his eyes and distantly wonders if anyone would even notice that he was gone if he decided to just tip forward ever so slightly and let gravity take him to the pavement below. _There is no one left to care._ He can feel his body instinctively starting to slump forward before he snaps his eyes open and takes a quick step back off of the guard, cursing himself for his self-destructive thoughts.

He has never felt so alone and powerless in his own skin. The constant thoughts of suicide and guilt gnaw at him like he is made of brittle bones, breaking him down piece by piece until he feels like the only thing that hasn’t changed is the slowly rotting corpse that his mind inhabits. He knows what is happening to him, but he doesn’t feel the need to stop it anymore. There is no one left to disappoint, no one left to gather his pieces and put them back together, so he all but completely gives up on himself. The only thing that picks him up from the ground and keeps him moving is his anger, the only thread left that ties his existence to Earth.

He seats himself on the rooftop with his back leaning against the guard and rummages around his bag looking for his wallet. It holds the last remaining photo of the three of them together, sitting around the Christmas tree while watching Levi open his birthday presents. Since Levi’s birthday is on Christmas day they would always celebrate by making him breakfast in bed and forcing him to open all of his birthday gifts first. After he had fled his homes and smashed his phone, he lost every other keepsake of their time together. He almost regrets it, but this one photo is enough for him.

He doesn’t even notice that he is crying until he sees a droplet splash on to the clear protective layer over the photo, his hands start to shake and he drops his wallet to the ground, a white card slipping out upon impact. He eyes the card through the blur of fresh tears and hesitantly picks it up.

“ _When you eventually change your mind, give me a call._ ”

He knows that nothing good will come out of it, but he can’t unearth the tiny seed of hope that has burrowed in to his mind. He doesn’t allow himself to think too much about it as he fishes his phone out of his pocket and starts to enter the phone number, he lets out a deep exhale before hitting the call button.

“Ah Levi, I knew you’d come around,” he can practically hear the smugness radiating through the receiver, “though you did take longer than I thought you would.”

Levi inhales deeply “I want to know more.”

They arrange a time and place to meet up the next night.

-

By 11pm Levi finds himself lying on a gurney getting pushed down white sterile halls and in to an elevator.

 

“How do you do it?”

“We inject you with a serum once a day and subject you to physical trials in order to kick-start the DNA transformation.”

“This sounds like a crock of shit, do you have any evidence that this is real and actually works? I’m not agreeing to shit before I know you’re telling the truth,” he draws his brows together and stares at Kenny through hooded eyes.

“Evidence you say?” a smirk makes it’s way to his face “I believe I can provide that.”

Within an instant Kenny disappears from the chair in front of him and he feels a hot breath roll down the back of his neck setting his hair on end, “Is this enough evidence, or would you like more?” Kenny says from behind him.

Levi jerks his head around to make eye contact with him, scowling in embarrassment from being caught off-guard, “What the fuck was that?”

“Just a taste of what you’ll be able to do. I can sense that you’re surprised.” Levi almost chokes from the foulness of his breath. “Starting to get the picture now, yeah?” he shoots Levi the toothiest smirk that he has ever received.

Levi swallows back his pride and turns to face the desk, “whatever,” he uncrosses his arms in resignation, “where is this shitty contract then.”

Just when he thought that smirk couldn’t get any wider, “That’s what I like to hear!” he gives Levi a hearty pat on the back that sends him reeling forward into the desk from it’s force.

 

When the elevator doors chime open he finds himself being wheeled into a place of stark contrast to the white sterile rooms on the floors above him. There is the familiar metallic scent and numerous other unpleasant body odours that assault his senses. He can almost taste it. The brown brick walls are gritty with copious amounts of grime and what looks like aged blood, dimly lit by the occasional warm light. There are black curtains drawn around the perimeter blocking off small sections of the large room in a mockery of public hospitals. He can hear a mixture of pained groaning, rattled breathing and distant screams.

“What the fuck is this?” he can’t stop his heart from picking up in pace.

“The testing facility,” he hears Kenny from behind the gurney.

“What a fucking shithole,” Levi mumbles as he scrunches his nose in an attempt to stifle the scent.

“Not up to your standards, princess?” he can hear the smirk in his voice. “Ah, here we are,” Kenny appears from behind the gurney and opens the curtain to a small sectioned off area, “This is your new home for the next few months. Now I know it isn’t a top notch five star hotel, sorry about that princess… But you won’t be worrying about that soon enough,” he chuckles.

One of Kenny’s lackeys push his gurney into the middle of the sectioned-off area, there is a myriad of sterile high-tech medical equipment surrounding him, starkly juxtaposing the dreary interior of the building.

“No point in wasting any time, don’t you say? Shall we get started?” Kenny appeared beside him holding a relatively large needle in his hand.

“You said there won’t be much pain, right?” Levi winces at the uncertainty of his own tone.

“Only as much as is needed,” Kenny nods and two of his lackey’s appear beside the gurney and proceed to strap Levi’s struggling arms, legs, torso and head to the gurney so that he can’t move.

“This wasn’t in the contract, asshole!” Levi is starting to very much regret not running as soon as he got off the elevator.

“Doesn’t need to be” Kenny raises the needle up in the air before plunging it down into Levi’s chest with enough force to pierce his breastplate.

“FUCK!” Levi shouts through a forced exhale, he hears Kenny chuckling beside him before pulling out the syringe and making Levi wince and struggle against the restraints that are holding him down “What the shit!” he howls through labored breaths.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you! It only works when injected straight to the heart,” the smile on Kenny’s face is unsettling.

“You piece of shit!” Levi growls.

“Come on now, the worst is yet to come princess,” he turns around and shuffles some items around on a table just out of Levi’s view, “The stimulants work at maximum capacity within the first 2 hours of each injection,” Levi can hear him approaching the back of the gurney so he tilts his head back and sees Kenny holding two small metal poles attached to wires. One of his lackey’s shows up next to the gurney and places a thin wet towel around the top of his head. “The sooner we get to work, the quicker we will be able to stimulate the process. And trust me, you will want this to happen as quickly as possible. So be a good little princess for me, won’t you?” his grin is positively wicked as he leans close to Levi’s face.

“Fuck you!” Levi hocks spit at his face.

Kenny doesn’t even flinch at he disgusting display of defiance, “That’s no way to speak to your own flesh and blood,” his face darkens as he brings the poles to either side of Levi’s head.

Levi’s eyes widen and he is about to speak before suddenly he no longer has control over his own body. Wave after wave of excruciating pain crash down upon every fibre of his flesh and force all of his muscles to simultaneously spasm out of his control. He feels like there are a million tiny needles twisting into his brain, causing his mind to glitch and black out while his body is still very much awake. He vaguely notices agonised screams rattling through his body as his senses lose the ability to accurately communicate with his brain. He doesn’t know whether it has been an eternity or just 30 seconds, he can’t even think.

“Not much longer now princess.”

-

As his body is fighting for consciousness he can hear people talking next to him.

“-thinks it was that gang full of idiots, and we will keep it that way.” That was definitely Kenny.

“Ha! Those guys are too easy!” He hears another voice that he doesn’t know, must be a lackey.

“He should be up soon anyway, ah speak of the devil,” Levi cracks an eye open and sees Kenny standing next to his gurney talking to a lanky bald man who is holding a stack of papers. “Morning princess!” Kenny beams at him in mockery. Levi watches the bald man as he makes his way over to the small filing cabinet near his bed and stashes the papers away, Levi swears he can see Furlan’s name titling a manila folder before the draw is slamming shut. “I thought I might come down and see how you are doing, I hope my men have been gentle with you,” Kenny gives him a devious smirk.

“Tch, yeah,” his voice is scratchy from disuse; he stopped screaming a few weeks ago now, _or was it months ago?_ He can’t remember anymore, “Just peachy, thanks,” his sarcasm is palpable.

“Good to hear! I’ll be back in a bit for today’s _physical activities,_ ” Kenny chuckles as he and his bald lackey make their way out through the curtain.

 _Was that really his name on that file?_ Levi notices that one of his wrist restraints is looser than usual so he starts struggling against it, trying to pull his hand through the cuff while the metal tears into the sensitive flesh of his wrist. It’s no use; he can’t squeeze the cuff past the first deformed notch of bone in his hand. His hands have already been broken since arriving at the facility, Kenny watching as his lackey slowly hammered away at each bone.

_“Don’t worry, they will go back to normal once the process is complete. Actually, they will be better than normal, just like everything else will be... Well, at least physically,” Kenny laughs as he pokes at Levi’s broken bloodied hands._

The bones are healing at odd angles, causing a consistent dull ache even when not in use. He knows that it won’t take much to shatter them again. He raises his hand as much as the restraints allow before repeatedly smashing it down thumb first into the metal surface of the gurney until he hears and feels the tell-tale crack of bone. He squeezes his hand free and reaches over to the surgical tray that is just out of reach “Fuck” he mutters under his breath. He pulls on a flimsy metal pole that is attached to the gurney and jimmies it free with whatever strength is left in his other fingers. He uses the pole as leverage to pull the tray closer until it is in arms reach. He puts the pole down and grabs a long pointy tool from the tray and proceeds to pick open the cuff on his other wrist successfully, the bones in his back shift and click as he sits up to reach the restraints on his ankles.

After he has successfully rid his body of all restraints he goes to step off the gurney but his legs give out from beneath him, sending him to the floor with a dull thud, “shit,” he quietly curses. He drags himself over to the small filing cabinet and uses the tool to pick the lock on the single draw and pulls it open. There are barely any files so it doesn’t take him long to spot one that says “Isabel Magnolia”, he opens it and the first paper is labelled “Toxicity Report” his eyes scan over the report until he sees something that sucks the air from his lungs.

“Positive findings: Compound: Methylamphetamine” Levi rips the paper in half _this isn’t true, I would have known. This is all just bullshit._ He flicks through the other files until he spots “Furlan Church”, he pulls the file out and traces the name with his thumb as he steels himself to open it. The first sheet of paper appears to be a letter of communication.

“K. A.,

We have processed and approved the new recruitment strategy that you submitted for your nephew Levi Ackerman in regards to the elimination of Furlan Church. As you know, a few of our members are previous underlings of the gang in Sina City and a handful have agreed to participate in the robbery, their inside knowledge will be a great help to ensure we are able to seamlessly frame Mr Church without having it traced back to us.

Remember that the only reason this unorthodox strategy has approval is due to the success rates of Ackerman’s in our clinical trials. If things should go wrong, your plan will be held accountable. I expect you to work closely with this strategy lest the considerable variables amount to a fail.

R. R.”

It all clicks in an instant and he can feel violent anger bubbling through his veins.

“What are you doing up princess?” Kenny’s voice appears behind him.

Levi twists his body to face the man, “What the fuck is this?” he snarls and bashes the cabinet with his crippled hand, smearing it with blood.

“Hah! I was hoping you would figure it out without looking through the files, but you were never really that smart,” Kenny snorts, “Although, I’m impressed that you finally got yourself out of that bed, doesn’t look like you can do much though,” Kenny walks forward and lands a kick to the side of Levi’s head sending his face reeling to the ground. Blood starts to flow from his mouth and pool on the cheap cracked tiles below him. “What a shame, looks like we are going to have to take this up a notch,” Kenny bends down grabbing a fist full of Levi’s hair and drags him across the floor and down a narrow hallway as Levi desperately grasps at Kenny’s arm with mangled fingers in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure from his scalp.

At the end of the dark narrow hallway they reach a white door, Kenny swings it open revealing a small box-shaped room covered in small white tiles from the roof down. In the middle of the room is a large clear tube, Kenny drags him over to the tube and hauls him into it by his hair. Levi tries to struggle, but Kenny is strong enough to easily hold him in place with just one hand centered on his chest as he straps Levi’s limbs down.

“Why! Why did you do all of this?” Levi tries to yell through the scratchiness of his throat.

“Because you’re special Levi. You just don’t know it yet,” Kenny’s face is uncharacteristically blank.

“But why did you frame him? Why did he have to die?” He tries to hide the desperation in his voice.

“Because we had to break you to rebuild you,” Levi can see the darkness briefly flash through his eyes, “your care for those close to you is your only weakness, so I exploited it. I tried to get you to see reason without disposing of him, had you agreed earlier that day then maybe he would still be alive.”

Levi growls at him, “What about Izzy? Did you set her up too?”

“No, she was stupid enough to get herself in that mess. We just used the spite you already had for the Sina gang because of her and used it to our advantage.” Kenny proceeds to stick wires to Levi’s chest and flick a few switches on a panel outside the tube, “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but it’s a nuisance knowing that you can escape your restraints, so here we are.”

“What is this?” Levi draws his brows together as he assesses his surroundings.

“Probably our most state-of-the-art stimulant, an oxygen deprivation tank. You see these?” He gestures to all of the wires that are now attached to Levi, “They monitor your heart rate. And when I lower this,” he grabs the door to the tube, “You will be sealed off in here and all of the oxygen will be sucked out. When your heart rate lowers to just a dull thud, these machines will pump some more oxygen back in until your heart rate is _relatively_ normal again, then they will suck the oxygen straight back out and so on,” Kenny gives a toothy grin, “You will be on the verge of death until your body yields to the process. And don’t even bother trying to escape, even if you get out of these restraints there is no way you can open this tube. Not even I can.”

“You fucker!” Levi bares his teeth in disgust. He doesn’t even see the syringe coming before it is suddenly lodged in his abused breastplate. “I’m going to fucking murder you and everyone you care about!”

“I surely hope not, I care about you,” Kenny gives him a sickly sweet smile before slamming the tube door shut. “Now be good – not that you really have a choice,” Kenny’s voice now muffled by the tube.

-

“He seems to be responding well to the new stimuli, it shouldn’t be much longer and the physical process will be complete and we can start the mental process.”

“That sounds promising, I have to admit that I wasn’t sure whether you could pull this off or not. I’m impressed so far, though it isn’t over yet,” he strokes his patchy mustache.

“C’mon boss, it’s me! When have I ever let you down,” Kenny winks at his boss.

There is a loud bang as the door to the stuffy office is slammed open “Mr Reiss, Mr Ackerman,” the lackey greets in a rushed voice, “There is a problem in the basement Mr Ackerman, you need to come check it out.”

“Have I praised you too soon?” Rod eyes Kenny as he takes a swig of the amber fluid that was sitting on his desk, “Go sort it out, now.”

Kenny stands and makes his way to the door, “On my way boss!” he gives a mock military salute as he exits the door.

 

Kenny follows his lanky bald lackey to the elevator, “what was so important that you had to interrupt my meeting?” he demands.

“The main subject, Levi, he… is missing,” the lackey seems bewildered and confused.

“What the fuck do you mean? He was in the tank!” Kenny roars.

“Yes sir, but I went to check the room and the door of the tank was lying broken on the ground and Levi was nowhere to be seen,” Kenny can smell fear all over the man, “this hasn’t happened before sir, what do we do?”

“Shit,” Kenny mutters, “Tell everyone to be on high alert, make sure you’re armed,” Kenny pulls a knife and handgun from his pocket, though if the process is complete and he has escaped, it might be too late.

“Yes sir.”

The elevator chimes as the doors open to reveal the gungy basement where they hold the test subjects. Kenny raises his gun and starts making his way to the deprivation room while his bald lackey goes to alert the other lackeys on the floor. Kenny enters the hallway and slowly approaches the white door at the end, his finger hovers over the trigger as he kicks the door open. The room is empty and quiet, suddenly Kenny hears a blood curdling scream and pained yelling coming from elsewhere in the basement, he turns around and makes his way back through the hallway. When he rounds the corner to the main room he sees splashes of blood lining the walls and tiles with bodies scattered throughout lying in pools of blood. He notices one of the bodies are still breathing - his lanky bald lackey, he kneels next to him.

“What happened?” Kenny rushes him.

“L-Levi! Fuck! He is… so f-ast,” the lackey starts to choke on a mouthful of blood.

“Hello _princess_ ,” Kenny’s blood runs cold when he hears the voice and whips his head around to see the feral features of the small man sneering at him. Levi’s eyes glow of mercury beneath the shadows of his fringe.

“The process – it’s done?” Levi revels in the shocked expression on Kenny’s face.

“I don’t know, what do you think?” in less than a millisecond Levi’s face is only centimeters away from Kenny’s and Kenny stumbles backward, shocked.

“Who let you out? You can’t bust out of the tank!” Kenny demands frantically.

Levi laughs for what feels like the first time in years, “well I did, hmmm - does that mean I’m stronger than you?” he half smirks.

Kenny raises his gun to Levi, but Levi catches his arm in the process and the world feels like it’s turning off it’s axis before Kenny finds himself on his back with Levi looming over him.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Kenny can practically taste the smugness oozing from Levi as his weapons are kicked from his hands.

Levi goes to kick his ribs and sends him flying into a wall on the other side of the room, lodging him in broken tiles and bricks.

“Oh shit,” Levi widely smirks, “A definite yes. Looks like you’re going to have problems wiping your ass for a while, _princess._ ”

“I knew it would work,” Kenny groans, “but not this well.”

“You know I doubted you for a while,” Levi calms his expression, but only slightly, “I thought you were just a bunch of sick fucks, but now I see that you weren’t torturing me _purely_ out of boredom,” his tone incredulous, “but I’m still going to make you pay for what you did to Furlan. You took away the last good thing in my life, so now you’re going to burn.” Levi kicks the wall, successfully dislodging a large chunk of hard debris and picks it up proceeding to throw it as hard as he can at each of Kenny’s limbs, crippling him completely.

Levi walks over to a small sectioned off area of the room where all of the more menial ‘stimuli’ is kept and spots a large drum of gasoline that is kept next to the blowtorch, he easily hoists it over his shoulder and finds a pack of matches in a draw then proceeds to douse the entire room in gasoline. When he deems the room sufficiently covered he strolls over to where Kenny is still lodged in the wall and empties the rest of the drum over his head before slamming the empty drum into Kenny’s ribs, causing his body to jam further into the wall as a cloud of debris rains down.

“I made you. You would still be nothing without me,” Kenny chokes on some blood that forces its way out of his lungs.

“I’d still have _him_ if it weren’t for _you_.” Levi pulls out a match from the pack, twirling it between his fingers, “Now I am using against you what you so _selflessly_ gave me,” the corner of Levi’s mouth twitches upward minutely before spinning on his heel for the exit. As he is making his way over to the exit he strikes the match, it sparks and catches alight quickly before he is tossing it over his shoulder as he reaches the bottom of the stairs.

“This isn’t the end,” He hears Kenny shout before he is ascending the stairs. The thick fiery air starts to invade his lungs as it rushes up from behind him, almost pushing him through the stairwell and out the exit door.

He doesn’t look back, not even when he steps foot on the grass outside for the first time in months. He can’t afford any more regrets.

“Levi! Wait!” Levi freezes when he hears someone distantly shouting his name from behind, he is about to run before he suddenly feels a strong grip on his shoulder, “I’m going to get you out of here,” the voice is now next to his ear, he whips his head around and sees a young girl with black hair staring at him intently.

“Who the fuck are you?” Levi takes a few steps away, forming a gap between him and the sudden visitor.

“Mikasa, there isn’t much time to explain, but I am not here to hurt you. I am here to help you. If you don’t follow me, you _will_ die,” she urges him, lowering the timbre of her tone.

Levi doesn’t really feel like he has anything to lose at this point, and he swears that he can sense the honesty of her intentions somewhere deep in his bones.

“Fine, but if you try to bring me back to that group of bastards I will rip out your intestines and strangle you with them,” Mikasa looks back to the smoking building and realises that the threat is definitely not an empty one.

“Let’s go,” she wraps an arm around Levi’s waist before he finds himself being hurled through the air as Mikasa shoots what looks to be a grapple from her right arm into a nearby building, as they gain momentum through the air and the grapple quickly dislodges and shoots into another tall building hurling them forward again until they reach the rooftops and Mikasa drops him on a roof.

Mikasa turns to him, “Try to keep up,” she offers her hand to help him up, but he refuses. Suddenly Mikasa sprints and jumps to the roof of the neighboring building so fast that it is almost instantaneous, Levi is surprised to notice that he can track every movement that she makes with his naked eyes. “Come on!” she shouts at him as she proceeds to jump from rooftop to rooftop.

Levi dusts off his tattered pants and starts to make his way through the rooftops, sometimes leaping up to 20 metres at a time. It doesn’t take long for him to catch up to her before they reach their destination.

Mikasa walks over to the rooftop access door and gestures for Levi to follow her, “There are a few people that have been waiting for you to escape, they are eager to finally meet you,” she starts descending the stairs to the building.

“You say that like it is a good thing,” Levi raises a skeptical brow.

“It is,” she simply states as they reach a landing and Mikasa opens the door to enter a hallway that is lined with apartments before she notices that Levi is standing still on the landing in the stairwell, “Coming?”

“If I keep following you are you eventually going to stop with all this vague bullshit?” Levi crosses his arms over his chest in defiance.

“Yes, but I’m not the person to discuss this with,” she makes her way down the hallway and Levi hesitantly follows. They reach apartment 507 and Mikasa knocks rhythmically on the door, Levi arches a brow at her in amusement, “It’s code,” she sheepishly explains.

The door bursts open revealing a manic looking woman whose eyes are practically bulging from behind her thick glasses, “Levi!” she squeals before engulfing him in a hug so forceful that it squeezes the air from his lungs.

“Woah, what the hell!” Levi yelps from the impact and sudden physical contact, “who are you?” he demands.

“Oh! Sorry!” Levi squirms out of her grip, “How rude of me! My name is Hange, welcome to my humble abode!” she directs him into the apartment by his shoulders.

“Stop touching me,” Levi bats her hands from his shoulders and turns to face her, “why was I brought here?”

“Well, I have an offer to make you of course!” she jumps from foot to foot in excitement, it’s almost overbearing to Levi.

“Here we go again…” Levi frowns and attempts to make his way straight back out the door before the young dark haired girl grabs his shoulder, planting him in place.

“No, no, no! Nothing like that! My offer is actually a good one, I want you to help me help others! As much as we all despise Rod and his bunch of ethically ambiguous assholes, they did give you an amazing gift. All I want to do is help you to realize the potential of your new abilities, but unlike Rod, I want to help you while keeping your freedom intact,” she smiles genuinely at him, “sure, I will encourage you to use your powers to help those weaker than you, but I will never try to manipulate you or use you for my own personal gain,” she drops on to one of the plush couches, “but I don’t need to convince you, right? You can already sense that I’m telling the truth,” she winks at him.

Levi’s eyes widen, she is right. Levi can sense her honesty deep down, like when he first spoke to Mikasa. The feeling is so foreign to him; it almost feels like prior knowledge resurfacing after being forgotten.

“Hah, knew it!” she giggles, “you’ll get to meet the rest of our group over the next few days, so feel free to bum around here until we can get you back on your feet! Mi casa su casa, am I right Mikasa?” Hange bursts into a fit of laughter at her own lame joke.

“Every time…” Mikasa mumbles to herself.

Levi caves knowing he has no other option, he just hopes that the adjustment period will not be as painful as his predictions.

-

It is unusually cold tonight. His breath clouds before it scatters among the frosty air, but even before the drop in temperature he still felt numb from the elements, and from pain. His body is controlled and his mind is honed, the ultimate weapon.

He flies past buildings as he challenges himself to target his grapples into the wooden utility poles as he goes, he never misses, it’s almost as if his mind and body are one with his surroundings. The grapples were initially intended for scaling buildings only, but after they found out just how well Levi’s body can handle the strain on his muscles and joints he managed to convince Hange (more like encourage) to make a few tweaks to the design so the grapples can be used in consistent bursts with minimal jerkiness.

He zigzags through the streets at inhuman speeds; if people could see him below all he would be is a dark blur in the sky, but the streets are always so still at this time of the morning.

Just as he is passing near a gas station he senses it - the fear, he can feel it close - about 200 meters away.

He changes course and swings on to a rooftop across the street from the gas station. He makes his way to the back of the rooftop and peers down at the alley. He can see three men crowding over a woman while another person hangs back in the shadows. Levi notices another person entering the alley out of the corner of his eye, he watches as the blonde man approaches and raises a gun and enforcement badge to the men surrounding the woman, oblivious to the extra man hanging back in the shadows who instantly raises a gun to the back of the blonde cop’s head.

Levi sighs before launching his grapple into the building on the other side of the alley and swinging down to land a light blow (hard by average standards) with his fist to the back of the shadowed gunman’s head, instantly dropping him to the ground. Levi perches on the side of the building before shooting his grapple back into the opposite building and swiftly swinging a consecutive kick into the heads of all three remaining assailants as he passes by them. Levi pulls the hood of his cloak over his head and kicks off from the building before landing on his feet in front of the blonde cop.

“Shit!-“ the cop stumbles backward, almost tripping over his own feet. The reaction makes Levi’s lips twitch in to a smirk.

 _Well shit, this dumb bastard is gorgeous._ Levi instantly dismisses his inner monologue with a scowl, “I thought people like you weren’t meant to be so fucking stupid. Would have been a shame if they splattered your stupid brain all over this shitty alley,” Levi sneers at the blonde cop.

The man gapes at him with wide eyes, “Who are you?”

“Who I am is none of your fucking business,” Levi snaps tersely and makes his way over to the unconscious woman and presses his finger to her neck, the strong pulse beneath his fingertips satiate him minutely.

“Well, I would like to know the name of the person who just saved the lives of two strangers, one of those strangers being a chief detective,” the cop asks Levi as he easily hoists the limp woman over his shoulder, he almost misses the cop’s slightly raised brows at his display of effortless strength.

“Tch, your other little piggies better get here soon, they will only be out for another 30 minutes… tops,” he gestures toward all the knocked-out assailants on the ground with a smug sense of self-satisfaction.

Levi takes one last look at the deep blue eyes of the well-put-together cop and feels a flash of recognition before he is shooting his grapple up a building and landing on a rooftop. _I know him from somewhere._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PHEW! That was a long one! I felt the need to get out the majority of Levi's backstory in one fell swoop, so here we are 10,500 words later! A far cry from the prologue word count.  
> I bet most of you have already picked up on elements of Deadpool, I did take some inspiration from Deadpool's backstory and incorporated certain elements to suit my story. Though clearly Levi was not physically deformed in the process, so he still has his devilish good looks! Not to worry ;P  
> I also want to state that I do not dislike any of the characters in Attack on Titan, I believe every single character that Isayama has created is interesting and well thought-out. I am sorry if I have 'demonized' a character that you enjoy, but please know that it wasn't done with any malicious intent, I actually really like Kenny in the manga. I just prefer including pre-established characters in to my fan fiction instead of establishing a bunch of OCs that take away from the real story. I hope you understand!  
> Also, I tried to proof read this chapter myself, so sorry if I missed any mistakes! If you spot any I'd appreciate it if you would kindly let me know in the comments.  
> P.s. Kudos and comments make me smile ;P


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